What was you favorite activity/topic this year? Why was it a favorite? What was your least favorite? Why?

My favorite activity last year had to be the karaoke project because it was the most creative and fun to finish. It was fun to sing it in front of the class, even if my partner and I weren't that good at singing in general. Replacing the words in songs with science related words and making them rhyme was extremely challenging but very entertaining.
My least favorite thing had to be the benchmark because I was not ready at all for it, and I only managed to pull off a B on it. There were numerous questions on it that I did not understand and I had to guess, thankfully, my guesses were not all wrong.

Blog#13 How has DNA changed how we investigate crimes? What are the two main tests? Describe them

DNA profiling has created a new form of looking at crimes. All the evidence can be DNA tested and therefore breakdown the possible victims. The two main types of DNA profiling are:
PCR Analysis
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is used to make millions of exact copies of DNA from a biological sample. DNA amplification with PCR allows DNA analysis on biological samples as small as a few skin cells. With RFLP, DNA samples would have to be about the size of a quarter. The ability of PCR to amplify such tiny quantities of DNA enables even highly degraded samples to be analyzed. Great care, however, must be taken to prevent contamination with other biological materials during the identifying, collecting, and preserving of a sample.
STR Analysis
Short tandem repeat (STR) technology is used to evaluate specific regions (loci) within nuclear DNA. Variability in STR regions can be used to distinguish one DNA profile from another. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) uses a standard set of 13 specific STR regions for CODIS. CODIS is a software program that operates local, state, and national databases of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence, and missing persons. The odds that two individuals will have the same 13-loci DNA profile is about one in a billion.